


Friend, Please (when did you believe you were alone)

by wearethefoxes



Series: the game is not played alone [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Allison and Kate are cousins, Alternate Universe - High School, Artist Derek, Crushes, Derek Has Issues, Derek and Laura are Twins, F/M, M/M, Past Kate Argent/Derek Hale, Popular Stiles Stilinski, Protective Laura Hale, Rumors, Warning: Kate Argent, i don't know why lunch tables are such a big deal jfc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-11
Updated: 2015-06-11
Packaged: 2018-04-02 23:38:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4078249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wearethefoxes/pseuds/wearethefoxes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jackson says, "There are so many rumors about you, we can't even tell anything."</p>
<p>"You're a tough guy to get a read on," Boyd says quietly, and he's the only one who is smiling.</p>
<p>Derek glances at Laura, who is scowling with her feet tapping anxiously, and at Stiles, who's face is open and inviting, and who nods encouragingly when Derek looks at him. Reluctantly, Derek asks, "What do you want to know?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friend, Please (when did you believe you were alone)

**Author's Note:**

> Part 2 is here! This work is in a series, so some things won't make sense without reading the first one, A World Alone (too lazy to link). Pop on over and give that one a try!
> 
> This chapter is kind of fluffy (except lol no bc Kate but not a lot actually happens). I enjoy writing this series because they're written in short little one-shot things, but the arc across the whole series is fun to work into the plot of the individual works. I just enjoy this idk *shrugs*
> 
> This part is shorter than the last one I think, but the next part should be longer.
> 
> As always, if you see any mistakes let me know since it's unbeta'd
> 
> Enjoy!

"Okay, it's been a month, Derek," Lydia says, turning to him, and Derek forces himself to meet her eyes. She's right, it has been a month since he started sitting with them, and things have been - good. Better than they're ever been for him in high school probably. Still, he doesn't quite feel like he  _fits_ all the way yet. Mostly he just sits in between Erica and Stiles - or Laura, on the days that she joins them - and listens, eating his carrots or his apple or whatever he brought and doodling idly. He doesn't read books at lunch anymore, but - it's hard for him, so the sketchbook stays. "We don't even really know anything about you."

"Yeah!" Scott jumps in from the end of the table. Laura is sitting here to today, so Jackson is on one end across from Boyd, Lydia next to him, followed by Stiles, Allison, and Scott. Boyd is sitting next to Erica, of course, and Derek next to her, Laura on his other side, and then Isaac next to her. It's a bit of a lopsided arrangement, but it works for them, and he's still across from Stiles so it's okay with him, too. "You never talk!" Derek grimaces, but it's more because Scott's mouth is full of sweet potato fries than anything else.

"Besides," Jackson says, "there are so many rumors about you, we can't even tell anything."

"You're a tough guy to get a read on," Boyd says quietly, and he's the only one who is smiling.

Derek glances at Laura, who is scowling with her feet tapping anxiously, and at Stiles, who's face is open and inviting, and who nods encouragingly when Derek looks at him. Reluctantly, Derek asks, "What do you want to know?"

Lydia grins, sharply, and Derek tightens his grip around his pencil. 

Allison jumps in before Lydia can ask whatever it is she's going to. "Is it true you beat up Jackson?"

Jackson sputters at the end of the table, but Lydia lays a hand on his arm and he stops. Derek scoffs a little, before he can stop himself. "In the third grade, yeah." They're all looking at him, so he shrugs. "He made Laura cry about something, I don't remember."

Erica laughs, sharp and startled, and the rest of them follow quickly. Stiles is smiling, a warm thing, and Derek hesitantly smiles back.

"What about that one kid with the camera, Matt Daehler?" Scott asks, and Erica stiffens next to him.

Derek shifts in his seat. Laura is looking at him, curious as well, and he realizes he never told her about this one. "Um. Yes. Sophomore year." He glances at Erica before he can help it, and her eyes widen with sudden realization. 

"Oh my god, that was you?" Erica says, looking at him, and Derek flushes and looks down at the table. "It was!" The others are looking at her in confusion, so Erica explains, "Sophomore year, I was on this new medicine for my epilepsy, and I had...kind of a reaction to it I guess? I had a really bad seizure. Luckily, there were only like four people in the room - I don't remember why now, but it was me, Derek, Ms. Yang, and Matt Daehler. Ms Yang panicked - it was Derek who administered first aid."

Out of the corner of his eye, Derek can see Laura shrug as she says, "Our little cousin used to get seizures so we all had to learn what to do."

"When I came back, Matt said he got the whole thing on camera and once he was done editing it, he was going to post it all over. It was - a bad seizure." Derek flushes remembering it; she'd pissed herself. "But when I came back from the weekend, they told me Matt was in the hospital and the video never got posted, and Derek sat with me at lunch."

Scott is the first to speak. "You put Matt in the  _hospital_?"

Derek shrugs, still not looking at any of them. "He deserved it." His voice is hard.

"God _damn_ baby brother," Laura breathes, and Derek pinches her thigh under the table because  _it's a seven minute age difference, jesus christ._

"I've got another one," Lydia says, and Derek looks up at the coldness in her tone. She's looking right at him, unapproachable. "Kate Argent." Derek freezes. His fists clench under the table and he's going to  _throw up_ and Laura looks like she could kill someone. Some of the others are nodding. "You dated her freshman year, yeah?" Slowly, Derek nods. He wishes her voice wasn't so falsely sweet; he's going to choke on it. "There's so many rumors, though! Which one is true: the one where you cried the first time you had sex, the one where you broke up with her, or the one where you were using her for sex the whole time and broke her heart for fun?"

She's just blinking prettily at him. Derek can't breathe. Stiles mutters, "Jesus, Lydia," looking at the tabletop. 

"Listen here,  _bitch_ ," Laura starts.

"The first two," Derek chokes out, and meets her eyes. He makes his face hard and blank. "The first two rumors are true, but not - not the third." He's grateful in a hollow kind of way when she looks away first, but then he has to face the rest of the table. Boyd and Erica are looking at him with sympathy, Isaac like he's seeing him for the first time, Scott's mouth is open, Stiles _isn't_ looking at him, and Allison - shit. He forgot that she and Kate were cousins. 

Derek clears his throat. "If you'll excuse me." He stands, gathering his sketchbook and his bag.

"That was out of line, bitch. Fuck you," Laura says, and Derek flinches.

"Laura," he says, his back to the table. He tugs her arm, and she follows him out of the lunchroom.

When they reach the parking lot, she explodes. "Who does that bitch think she is! She doesn't know  _shit_ about what happened with Kate, and to think - god! Fuck them, Derek. Fuck them."

Leaning against her car, he says quietly, "She was just trying to protect her friends."

Laura looks at him in shock. "You're making excuses for her now? God, Derek!"

He glares at her until she softens, slumping and coming to lean her head on his shoulder. "There are a lot of rumors about me, Laura. Most of them aren't flattering. She wasn't trying to be cruel - at least I don't think. She just wanted to see if I'm everything they say I am."

"Fuck that," she says, but she sounds tired now.

They stay like that for a while, leaning against each other with their hands loosely clasped. Eventually, Derek says, "You should go apologize to her."

Laura leans away. "Hell no!" When he just looks at her, she says stubbornly, "She has to apologize to you first at least."

"Laura."

"Fine! But if she ever tries anything like that again -"

Derek rolls his eyes. "I know. They'll never find the body. Now  _go_ , before lunch is over."

She starts to walk away and turns back to him when she reaches the sidewalk. "You coming back in?"

He shakes his head. "Not this lunch."

She nods and walks up the steps. She almost gets knocked over at the doors as they come flying open. "Oh, sorry," the person says, and Derek straightens at the voice. Laura makes a grumbling sound and disappears inside, and then Stiles is flying down the steps towards him.

"Why does Laura look like she's being forced to eat shit or something?" Stiles asks when he reaches Derek, and Derek smiles a little.

"I'm making her apologize to Lydia."

Stiles snorts. "Why? She was out of line."

Derek watches him carefully, but he looks like he means it. "So was Laura."

Stiles shrugs. Slowly, like he's expecting Derek to push him away or something, - like _that_ would ever happen - he leans against Laura's car next to Derek. They sit in silence. Derek expects it to be awkward - Stiles is a man of words and Derek is not, and Stiles is always moving and Derek is still if he can help it, and they don't  _really_ know each other though they're on their way - but it's nice. Quiet, and it settles something in him that's been racing since Lydia said, "Kate Argent."

When the bell rings, Stiles seems to startle a little before he pushes off the car. "I'm sorry," Stiles says as they walk into the building, and Derek glances at him. He's looking straight ahead, but his fist is tight around the strap of his bag. "For Lydia. I kind of - yelled at her a bit, once you walked out." Derek's eyes widen in surprise, and Stiles looks up at him before quickly looking away. "It's not any of her business what happened between you and Kate."

Derek tenses a little, like he always does when he hears her name, but he nods. Stiles glances at him. "But, um." He looks nervous, and he pulls Derek to a stop against a locker - his own, Derek notes with a bit of surprise. "Look. If you ever - obviously it's none of my business either but - I mean, if you ever wanted to. Jesus." He rubs a hand over his face, his eyes somewhere on the side of Derek's head. "Look, I doubt you'd want to, but -  _Jesus._ " He meets Derek's eyes, and when he does Derek realizes he's smiling. Hugely. Stiles' eyes narrow even as a ruddy flush spreads across his face and down his neck.

"Are you laughing at me?" Stiles accuses, his voice shrill, and then Derek is laughing, softly but genuinely, because he can't help it.

"If I need to talk about it," Derek says after the warning bell has gone off, to put Stiles out of his misery. "I'll come to you."

Stiles flushes again, looking surprised. His Adam's apple bobs as swallows. "Good." He clears his throat. "That's um - that's good."

God, he cannot stop grinning. Cora, hurrying past him in the hallway, stops to give him a strange look. He gives her a small wave, and she shakes her head, puzzled, and moves on.

When he turns back to Stiles, he's still bright red, looking at where Cora was standing. Derek claps him on the shoulder as he moves past, because he's going to be late now but he doesn't want to be  _that_ late if he can help it. "I'll see you tomorrow at lunch, Stiles."

"Oh. Um. That'd be - great. That's great," Stiles stutters, seeming to come out a trance, and flushes deeper. Derek grins bigger, delighted, and watches Stiles nod awkwardly at him before he ducks his head and disappears down the hall.

Derek is still grinning after him when the bell rings. "Shit," Derek mutters, and scrambles off to class.

**Author's Note:**

> Contrary to how Lydia is portrayed here (or maybe not because of what Derek said ??), I actually love her to pieces. I just think her and Derek would rub against each other wrong in this 'verse, and she doesn't really trust Derek at all so she isn't really very nice to him.
> 
> I honestly love writing Laura and Derek so much, as you can probably tell.
> 
> Um, what else? Oh! The next part is going to be longer I think, and build in more sterek romantic tension *waggles eyebrows*. Also there is more info about the weirdness between Derek and his mom and why the Hales have such a weird dynamic, so I'm excited for that.
> 
> Title comes from the song Friend Please by Twenty One Pilots
> 
> Comments make my life!
> 
> come talk to me on [tumblr!](http://allyaisbae.tumblr.com)


End file.
